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Paul J. Weber, AP
Governor Rick Perry says a crackdown on malpractice lawsuits expanded healthcare in Texas, but an analysis reveals a more complicated picture than his campaigning would suggest.
The Republican presidential candidate points to tort reform measures Texas passed in 2003 as proof of his job-creating credentials.

As guidelines recommend, doctors appear to be stopping anti-TNF medications before surgery, but may be doing so far sooner than is necessary, according to a new study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. These medications are used to treat a variety of inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, and better timing of withdrawal prior to surgery might minimize the risk of disease flares.

A microsurgical procedure that has lost some ground to advances in endovascular therapy still plays a critical role in the management of selected neurovascular disorders, according to a University Hospitals Case Medical Center neurosurgeon who performs the procedure. "Though its indications are rare, the ability to perform brain bypass correctly can make all the difference for certain patients who have complex brain aneurysms or other cerebrovascular disorders," said Nicholas C.

PRNewswire - A group of states and vendors focused on eliminating the barriers to sharing electronic health records today issued a set of technical specifications to standardize connections between healthcare providers, health information exchanges (HIEs) and other data-sharing partners.

Before going any further, the title to a Los Angeles Times story was “Adele to have surgery to treat vocal cord hemorrhage. What is it?”
I sincerely hope that whomever her surgeon is knows not to perform surgery when the vocal cord is in the middle of a hemorrhage. You do the surgery when the hemorrhage is gone and the culprit blood vessel is left behind which likely is the reason for the hemorrhage happening in the first place.

A new study indicates that many patients undergoing spine surgery have low levels of vitamin D, which may delay their recovery. In a study of 313 patients undergoing spinal fusion surgery, orthopaedic surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that more than half had inadequate levels of vitamin D, including one-fourth who were more severely deficient.

Adding a nurse practitioner (NP) to a busy hospital staff can decrease unnecessary emergency department visits, according to a study published in the latest issue of Surgery by researchers at Loyola University Health System. Researchers found that the nurse practitioner reduced ED visits by improving the continuity in care and troubleshooting problems for patients.

Compared with osteoarthritis patients, individuals with rheumatoid arthritis who undergo total knee replacement surgery have lower expectations about their post-surgical outcomes, according to a new study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City. These reduced expectations, which may be unnecessary, could cause some patients to slack on their post-surgical rehabilitation, leading to worse outcomes, say doctors.

Prostate cancer patients who undergo radical prostatectomy get better results at teaching hospitals than at non-academic medical institutions, according to the findings of an international study led by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital. "While our findings do not imply that teaching hospitals always provide better care than others, it is obvious that teaching hospitals have certain intrinsic characteristics that would explain the better results," says Quoc-Dien Trinh, M.

Healthcare workers who wear gloves while treating patients are much less likely to clean their hands before and after patient contact, according to a study published in the December issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology , the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

PRNewswire - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first catheter-based aortic heart valve replacement without the need for open-heart surgery in the U.S. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) enables multi-disciplinary heart teams to replace a patient's diseased aortic valve without traditional open-heart surgery, and while the heart continues to beat - avoiding the need for cardiopulmonary bypass.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announced today that it has awarded $34 million in fiscal year 2011 for grants and contracts to hospitals, academic medical institutions and health care research organizations to expand the fight against healthcare-associated infections.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announced today that it has awarded $34 million in fiscal year 2011 for grants and contracts to hospitals, academic medical institutions and health care research organizations to expand the fight against healthcare-associated infections.

PRNewswire - PhysioSonics announced today that it received a $2.5 million grant from the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center to optimize its proprietary cerebral blood-flow monitor to detect vasospasm. Following a successful launch in the civilian healthcare market, the military will test the monitor with the goal of deploying it at military facilities that care for soldiers with traumatic brain injuries (TBI).

A vampire-like bacteria that leeches onto specific other bacteria – including certain human pathogens – has the potential to serve as a living antibiotic for a range of infectious diseases, a new study indicates.
The bacterium, Micavibrio Aeruginosavorus, was discovered to inhabit wastewater nearly 30 years ago, but has not been extensively studied because it is difficult to culture and investigate using traditional microbiology techniques.